Star Online Report

This August 22, 2012 photo shows Jamaat leader Azharul Islam waving to onlookers as he is put into a prison van after his arrest at his Moghbazar home in the capital in connection with crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War

A tribunal in Dhaka today indicted Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam on six charges for his alleged crimes against humanity committed during the country’s Liberation War in 1971.
Now 61, the assistant secretary general of Jamaat has been charged with genocide, rape, murder, abduction, confinement and torture in Rangpur district.
He was a wartime student of Rangpur Carmichael College and president of Rangpur district unit Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat in 1971.
After framing the charges, International Crimes Tribunal-1 headed by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir set December 5 for starting trial in the case.
The Jamaat leader claimed himself innocent when the tribunal asked him whether he was guilty.
On July 25, the tribunal accepted the war crimes charges brought against him by the prosecution.
According to the prosecution, Azharul was allegedly involved in a massacre in Rangpur where some 1,225 people were killed in 1971.
Besides, he was allegedly involved in killing four people, abducting 17, raping one, confining 13, torturing 13 others and looting and torching numerous houses in the district.
Police arrested Azhar at his Moghbazar house in the capital on August 22 last year after the tribunal had issued a warrant of arrest in connection with his alleged wartime offences.